Firefly Fever!!!!

The Boy and I (and Starshine and one of her spawn) got to go to Creation's Salute to Serenity and Firefly this past weekend in LA. :D Here are my pics. Sorry they're so craptastic, my camera is not suited for low-light indoor zoom shots. :(

We had a fantastical time! We had purchased the Gold Ticket package, which entitled us to reserved, excellent seats at all panels (third row!); the exclusive Dessert Party with Morena Baccarin, Adam Baldwin and Yan and Rafael Feldman; and the exclusive Sunday Brunch with Alan Tudyk, Jewel Staite and Mark Sheppard. At both of these events, the celebrities visited each table and chatted with us for a bit. And Alan totally sat between Cindy and me.

During the autograph sessions, I gave each celeb a mini knitted Jayne hat pin that I made. Morena was especially delighted with hers and put it on immediately. Then, later at the Dessert Party, she announced to everyone that she had received a mini Jayne hat and loved it! Totally made my day. And during Sunday's autograph session, I had one of the mini Jayne hats in my hand, waiting to give it to Alan. His handler saw it and asked me, "Oh, where can I get one of those! I saw them and said, 'I HAVE TO find that girl!' " So I whipped another out of my bag and gave it to her. She was very excited.

At the brunch, they held a charity auction to benefit Kids Need to Read. I won an auction for a Serenity ballcap donated by Alan. It was to include it being signed by Alan. Someone else at our table (Marc) won Alan's fleece Serenity jacket, also to be signed, and Marc's friend Monica talked to management and they agreed to let her take a picture of Alan signing it, as Marc had been the highest bidder at the auction. So then it ended up that Marc and I were waiting to have Alan sign our items, and they decided that since Monica would be taking that picture, it needed to be done in a private room. And somehow I got included, too. So I was whisked away to a private room, and Alan signed our items and posed for pictures with us and I even got to keep the Sharpie. I don't have these pictures yet but Monica promised to email them to me. I gave her a mini Jayne hat pin and everything, so I really hope she does.

ALL of the panels were excellent. They are all so funny and so nice. The twins were very charming (and boy, do they know how to drink!) and Alan is a funny, funny man. We even got a panel with Jane Espenson and Tim Minear! I got them both to sign my Dollhouse DVD, and I got to tell Tim how freaking awesome he is.

Nathan Fillion had been scheduled to be there, but had to cancel because they needed him to do some reshoots for Castle. But during Alan's panel, Alan told the audience how sorry Nathan was that he couldn't be there, and then Alan brought out some seven-layer bean dip (of the Gods) that Nathan had made, and put it into the empty chair next to him, in Nathan's place. Alan and the dip answered questions for a while, and then Nathan called Alan on the phone. Alan put him on speaker for us, and we found out that Nathan did not exactly give Alan the bean dip. Alan stole it. Oops! Then Alan auctioned the bean dip (along with some signed photos and t-shirts) for charity, and it went for $375! This included a bag of tortilla chips; Alan signed the bag and also one of the actual chips. Later, the winner of the auction was kind enough to put it out in the hotel lobby and offered it to anyone who wanted to try some. It was actually very good.

This was a really excellent trip. I think I need to go to all of these.